BHOPAL: A major fire broke out at a plastic factory in Ashoka garden area on Friday early morning. The campus houses three other industrial units and has a slum area nearby but for the alacrity of the police patrolling team and the timely action of fire brigade the blaze was timely contained. The fire though gutted entire factory, surprisingly, the factory owner did not turn up to take stock of the loss.
The factory had a heavy stock of plastic waste and after the short circuit; the sparks fell on the waste resulting in a massive fire. The fire brigade teams took over an hour to douse the flames. In all 12 fire tenders from all the fire stations were pressed into the work.
Fire brigade authorities said they received information around 04:30 am and thereafter fire teams from Fatehgarh, Pul Bogda, Mata mandir, Govindpura, Chhola mandir, Gandhi Nagar and Bairagarh fire stations were rushed to the area.
Fire official Sajid Khan said the slum area adjoins the factory and the dire at the unit spread panic in the locality.
Even after the factory blaze was doused, the firefighters found the polythene and other waste around still under flames. Fire officials said the roof of the unit had fallen on the ground making it difficult to pump water inside the building. The teams tried pumping water inside the unit but the polythene waste there continued burning as we were unable to enter the unit as the roof had fallen on the ground, said the official.
Assistant sub inspector (ASI) Kedar Singh of Ashoka garden police station said while patrolling around and they spotted smoke and flames in the unit, and alerted fire brigade.
The entire factory was gutted but the owner of the factory did not show up even after repeated calls by the police, said the officer. The amount of loss would be ascertained once the factory owners approaches and confirm it, said Singh.